RS polls: BJP to announce candidate this evening

Alicia Cross

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has chose to field eight candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on March 23 for 10 RS members from Uttar Pradesh.

The TDP re-nominated CM Ramesh, a businessman, for one seat and chose a surprise candidate Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar for another for the biennial election to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh. The polls are being held for 58 Rajya Sabha seats across states, of which six are in Maharasthra.

Chandrasekhar's name was in a list of 18 names proposed by the BJP on Sunday from different states for the ensuing biennial elections to the upper house.

In the Assembly, the PWP and the Bahujan Vikas Agadhi (BVA) have three MLAs each, the AIMIM has two, and the MNS, the Samajwadi Party, the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, the CPM and the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh (RSP) have one each, while there are seven Independents.

BJP has fielded their national executive committee member V Muraleedharan as their Rajya Sabha candidate. The BJP wants to nurture its own leadership in the Rajbhar community.

The last date of filing nominations is tomorrow, scrutiny of nomination papers would take place on March 13 and the last date of withdrawal is March 15. With 122 assembly seats, the Congress can comfortably send two candidates and will have to muster a few votes for a third. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in June 2009 and was against re-elected in 2010.

In Madhya Pradesh too, the BSP will back the Congress while in Assam, Badruddin Ajmal's All India United Democratic Front has pledged its support to the Congress.

The BJP central leadership have decided to make one of its candidates form Kerala reach the Rajya Sabha as the Chengannur bypolls are around the corner.